[55]  £ 
REPORT 

O/"  tfte  Committee  on  Pensions  and  Revolutionary 
Claims  on  the  Petition  of  Elizabeth  Hamilton. 


February  24,  1816. 
Read  and  ordered  to  be  printed. 


The  committee  on  pensions  and  revolutionary 
claims,  to  whom  was  referred  the  petition  of 
Elizabeth  Hamilton,  respectfully 

REPORT-.. 

That  it  is  stated  by  the  petitioner,  that  her  late  hus- 
band Alexander  Hamilton  was,  as  she  is  advised, 
justly  entitled  to  five  years'  full  pay  (as  commutation 
of  half  pay  during  life)  of  a  lieutenant  colonel — in 
which  capacity  he  served  in  the  regular  army  of 
the  United  States  during  the  revolutionary  war. 

That,  her  husband  never  received  the  said  pay, 
to  which  he  was  so  entitled — that  if  he  ever  relin- 
quished his  claim  to  said  pay,  of  which  an  appre- 
hension is  expressed  by  the  petitioner,  it  was  from 
the  delicate  motive  of  devesting  himself  of  all  in- 
terest upon  the  subject  of  mating  provision  for 
the  disbanded  officers  of  the  revolutionary  army, 
who  served  during  the  war ;  in  which  important 
business  he  was  called  on  to  act,  as  a  member  of 
Congress,  in  the  year  1782  :  and  that  the  present 
situation  of  the  family  of  her  lamented  husband, 
renders  it  desirable  that  they  should  receive  the 
remuneration  to  which  he  was  justly  entitled  from 


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bib  country.  This  remuneration,  therefore,  the 
petitioner  respectfully  solicits. 

The  committee  are  not  aware  of  any  public  re- 
cord or  document,  showing  the  time  at  which  colo- 
nel Hamilton  resigned  his  commission  in  the  army. 
From  the  uniform  tenor  of  various  letters  of  dis- 
tinguished officers  of  the  revolutionary  army,  ad- 
dressed to  the  honourable  Richard  M.  Johnson, 
as  chairman  of  the  committee  of  claims,  in  the  year 
1810,  as  well  as  from  a  brevet  commission,  dated 
the  28th  day  of  October,  1783,  by  which  lieutenant 
colonel  Alexander  Hamilton  was  promoted  to  the 
rank  of  colonel  by  brevet,  in  the  army  of  the  Unit- 
ed States ;  the  committee  entertain  the  opinion 
that  colonel  Hamilton  served  during  the  war: 
and  that  he  never  received  either  half  pay  during 
life,  or  full  pay  for  five  years  in  lieu  thereof  as 
commutation,  to  which  he  was  entitled  by  law. 

Of  any  relinquishment  of  colonel  Hamilton  to 
the  claim  now  asked  to  be  satisfied,  the  committee 
possess  no  knowledge ;  except  that  derived  from 
the  apprehension  expressed  in  the  petition,  to 
which  they  have  already  adverted ;  and  from  a 
written  document  signed  A.  H.  importing  to  be  a 
statement  of  the  temporal  concerns  of  colonel 
Hamilton,  in  which  allusion  is  made  to  a  note  by 
him  signed,  addressed  to  the  secretary  of  war,  re- 
linquishing the  claim  in  question.  The  committee 
would  further  remark,  that  should  a  probability 
exist  that  colonel  Hamilton  may  have  relinquished 
his  said  claim,  and  notwithstanding  it  is  barred  by 
the  statute  of  limitation,  nevertheless,  as  the  ser- 
vices have  been  rendered  to  the  country,  by  which 
its  happiness  and  prosperity  have  been  promoted, 
they  are  of  opinion,  that  to  reject  the  claim  un* 
4«r  the  peculiar  circumstances  by  whi^h  it  is  cha- 


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able sense  of  justice  and  magnanimous  policy, 
which  ought  ever  to  distinguish  the  legislative 
proceedings  of  a  virtuous  and  enlightened  nation. 

They  have  therefore  prepared  a.  bill,  granting 
the  relief  solicited  in  the^remiweil/nn  eid  u< 
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